Ruled by Pluto

by Matthew Porubsky

The poems in Ruled by Pluto are governed by a heartbreaking contradiction of loss juxtaposed with myriad of carefully constructed characters that border the surreal. This poetic landscape is populated by mythic and fantastic characters such as John the Baptist, angels lounging on pool tables, and a brain in glass jar drinking whiskey on rocks. Porubsky strikes a taut balance between playfulness and acuity of absence that permeates just beneath the skin.

Gary Jackson
author Missing You, Metropolis


Meditative, personal, introspective, the poems in Ruled by Pluto explore the territory of loneliness: a place with its own ghosts and dangers, a place with its own religion, with everyday martyrs and saints. These poems are delicate revelations of Porubsky’s influences, from a Kansas farm house in the 1800s to everyday pilgrimages of domestic life, from the breathless gasp of a lover to the transfiguration of loved ones. It is the dizziness of the internal traveler and the sacredness of the mundane that give Ruled by Pluto its power and its steam, signaling a unique voice in contemporary poetry.

Mary Stone Dockery
author of Mythology of Touch and Aching Buttons

88 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2013